Tell No One
by animeanne
Summary: If on one fated night Sakura and Itachi had met, could it save them both? Pre-massacre, slight alternate universe, where Sakura and co and Itachi are closer in age.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto Y__Y, though I can't help but wish I did.

* * *

AN: Um so. I wrote this when I was inspired, and I'm still inspired. But I can't promise I'll remain inspired for very long. lol. meaning this may be a one shot. Not particularly sure yet.

* * *

.

.

.

_**Tell No One**_

.

_**By: animeanne**_

.

.

.

.

.

I can't really remember the exact moment when I fell in love with Itachi. We were never strangers but when I had met him, I was still completely and totally enamored with Sasuke. Meaning that my world revolved around Sasuke, and that no one, aside from Naruto's incessant presence could deter my attention away from him.

Itachi was a mere presence in the background. Sasuke's older brother—cold, quiet, unemotional, and generally unfriendly. The only words we ever exchanged were hellos and goodbyes that weren't said with much conviction. What we had felt towards each other, at most, could be best described as complete indifference.

But then there was one night that made everything change. You know, human relationships are like that—so fragile—the littlest things, the most transient moments can affect you for an eternity. I know that I have memories that are locked so deeply in my heart, that I would never forget them.

That night, I had felt particularly restless. Sasuke wasn't paying me any more attention to me since we were twelve. How blind was that boy to my love? Sometimes I really wanted to hate him for it. I couldn't wait for the moment when I grew out of him, but it sadly looked like that was not happening anytime soon.

Work as a medic was exhausting, and at times horrifying. Occasionally when I was on the job, I forgot that what I was seeing was human—that a life was involved. I tended to blot out all of my emotions when I would put all their broken pieces together again—it sometimes became mechanical. But when operations were finished and caput, my emotions would run embarrassedly loose. I cried at the smallest things, and I couldn't explain why.

And missions were so endless. And the days were so endless. And the nights were even longer. Was I the dude in Greek mythology that just kept rolling that rock up the mountain only to have it roll back down at that crucial moment?

I woke up, that night, wanting to do something crazy—something so crazy that would make my life different than it was now. Was I unhappy? No. When I put two and two together, everything was going just how it should be. But I couldn't find what to live for. Dealing with life and death everyday, death didn't seem so bad. I mean how do you know if being alive isn't being dead, and being dead wasn't being alive? It wasn't that I wasn't happy. It was just, I wanted to change somehow—to live a different life—perhaps become reborn in a sense. I had a life that I wanted, but couldn't find the meaning behind it—what was I here for? What was I meant to do?

With all these questions running through my head in a frenzy, I felt so incomplete, so miserable, as if no one would understand and no one would care. The world was an indifferent place, was it not?

And that was why, that night I decided I wanted to die.

Wow. It sounds crazy to me even now.

I rushed out into the night not knowing exactly where I was going, as if my body instinctively knew its own fate. The cold of mid autumn stung my face, wrenched tears from my eyes. I was in my thin pajamas, and I instantly regretted not having brought at least a jacket and scarf.

But what did it all matter now? I was planning on dying anyway. I ran until I felt the air coming through my lungs in sharp gasps. It took a few moments to recognize exactly where I was. It was a place so familiar to me, a place I frequented so often to see Sasuke--yet so different in the night. The house looked foreign in its large overbearing structure, as if its shadows wanted to swallow me whole.

I walked aimlessly around, and into their massive backyard, complete with acres and acres of land and untamed gorges. I could be swallowed so instantaneously; I would die alone.

I walked towards the edge, and in the moonlight I could see the ethereal beauty of the mountains—they were eternal, forever—if only I could be the same. I was so small standing there, so small, so insignificant against the endless background, against the world. Would it even matter to anyone if I were gone? What difference did it make? My feet teetered on the edge—I closed my eyes, waiting for the slightest breeze to take me away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

It was barely a whisper, yet it was enough to scare the living daylights out of me. My eyes snapped open and fell backwards onto the gravel in surprise. I whirled around trying to search out the noise.

"Who's there?"

The form, the man sat by a large boulder, his blood sharingan eyes burning so bright. For a moment, my heart quickened. Was it Sasuke? Then on closer observation, I noticed his eyes were more feminine, perhaps more beautiful, his hair slightly more outgrown, his body leaner.

It was Itachi.

"I-I-Itachi-San! W-W-What are you doing, um, here, tonight?"

"I should ask you the same question." His eyes narrowed slightly. There was a rather awkward silence. Was he asking me the question or not? I wasn't so sure. And what was I supposed to say? I thought it would be a nice way to die if I just jumped off this cliff?

"Well…I was just…uh…taking a stroll?" I didn't know why I said that in question form. "Why are you sitting there all by yourself?" I cautiously walked closer to his form.

Was it me or was he breathing harder than usual? Was that blood on his hands?!

I couldn't help letting out a sharp gasp as I made out his body. Being medically trained, I saw the large gash he was trying to hide using his hand; his left wrist broken in two places, his punctured lung, and his critically low chakra levels.

"You're hurt." I said plainly, calmly, much less surprised than I felt. The great Uchiha Itachi was _hurt_. Never in my entire life had I ever seen Itachi as anything other than a perfect, impenetrable force. Never once in my intimate relations with the Uchiha family, had I ever seen even a single strand of hair out of place or a single bead of sweat on his body. Uchiha Itachi did not sweat. He was flawless. Half shocked, half panicked, I said,

"We need to take you to the hospital—"

"No."

"I don't believe I understand you Itachi-san. If you don't get medical treatment now, you'll die." My eyes widened as he smirked slightly as if to say, _So?_ _And your point is?_ So many questions ran through my head, yet my first instinct was to push them all aside and help him.

I knelt beside him, without other nurses, this would be a little harder.

"Fine. Are all Uchiha so stubborn?" I said exasperatedly. The first step was to stop his bleeding. My hands reached for his shirt, but his voice cut sharply,

"Haruno, what the hell makes you think I want your help right now?" His face was blank yet I felt just a hint of his underlying anger. I stared into his red eyes, then looked at the blood on his hands. The strange thing was that I had simply come to this place to die, alone. But instead I found him, here. Or perhaps he found me. I hesitated for a moment before saying,

"Because you saved me from doing something really stupid. Let's just say that it's a favor returned, shall we?"

His Sharingan melted into their normal obsidian color. I smiled—he was giving me his consent. The work absorbed me. I pushed his shirt upwards to reveal the wound on his abdomen—it was deep, cut closely by a sharp kunai. I couldn't imagine how calmly he was taking the pain.

I melded my blue chakra into his abdomen, his skin feeling feverishly hot against my cold fingers. Strange how I'd always imagined Itachi to be cold like some reptilian creature.

Stopping the bleeding would be the first priority—my cool chakra blending into his, accelerated the blood clotting process. I put the slightest pressure on the wound, holding in the blood, regenerating his cells. His marble skin fascinated me, smooth, taut, and flawless under the moonlight. I had never been this close to a man whom I knew. If he wasn't who he was, this could seem almost intimate.

My attention moved to his punctured lung, breathing was the next priority. I stared into his eyes, staring back at me for a few moments, hesitating. His eyes were so black, I could almost see my own reflection in them as if I were looking into two perfect black mirrors. He looked half-amused, half-curious, waiting for my next action. I didn't know how to put it any other way,

"Itachi-san, would you mind removing your shirt so I could fix your lung?"

If Itachi could laugh, it would be like his reaction to my words. Only a slight jerk in his expression, a small smirk. _So that's it._

He attempted to lift his arm—he was so obviously in pain, yet he would never in a million years admit it. _So stubborn_, I thought, just like Sasuke. I gently peeled his black shirt from his body, he shifted for a moment so I could remove it. I could feel his gaze burning into the back of my head.

Setting immediately back to work, I spread my chakra across his chest, and closed my eyes. My chakra spread into thin gossamer strands, sensing, diagnosing, and forming the image in my mind of his wound. Broken ribs had punctured the lung. This would be more difficult. I would have to change the ribs' positions without altering anything else. Focusing all my chakra, I was beginning to feel the effects of fatigue and the decrease of chakra. I could feel the perspiration on my forehead. Just a little longer…this had to be done; these were small sacrifices for saving a life.

"Why are you doing this?" His voice cut through my thoughts. His eyes were staring blankly into mine again. It was an innocent enough question.

"What makes you think I'm worth saving?" He continued quietly. I could catch the underlying menace in his voice.

"Everyone is worth saving." Dismissing his question, I looked away from his gaze and back to the work ahead.

"You don't know me. You're making a _mistake_." I could hear the rising incense in his voice.

"I'm not making a mistake until I regret it, and I'm not regretting it now. You are Uchiha Itachi. How could I be making a mistake?"

Coldly, "I killed someone."

My heart stood still for a moment. I looked at him. He was serious.

He continued mechanically, without an ounce of emotion "I killed someone, and I watched him die slowly. We were close; we were like brothers, but I killed him nonetheless, because in the end, he didn't mean anything more to me than a means to an end." Pause. "Are you making a mistake now?"

I let out a shaky breath; I was inexplicably angry, "Why are you telling me all this? Why can't we be strangers meeting and separating? Why does it have to be personal?"

He chuckled darkly, "I'm just telling you what you're getting into, Haruno. We wouldn't want you to do something you'd regret, would we?"

"I'm just a medic. I go through patients and patients each day; everyone at the end of the day is just a body to me—where they come from, what they did, I can't even begin to know. We all have our own sins, and I'm not God. I can't decide who lives and who doesn't. I can only do my best and hope for the best in people. Don't make me make a decision that only you can make yourself, Itachi-san."

He was so _still_, his eyes boring into mine with such intensity, I didn't dare look away.

"You're lying, and you know it. All the bodies you see everyday, aren't just bodies to you. You carry your emotions so explicitly on your face. If these people were only bodies to you, you wouldn't lose sleep every night, wondering what you could have done more, sacrificing your health to the point that your life mattered so little to you. Don't tell me you don't wish you could save some and not some others. Don't tell me you've never looked back and regretted. Don't tell me there aren't skeletons in your closet." He hissed.

I sighed. In some respects he was right. Sometimes I couldn't understand why those who lived were the selfish ones—I couldn't understand how the best people could die. Why lives that were taken away were sometimes the ones that caused the most pain.

"You're right, I don't understand the _logic_ of death, but don't presume that you do either." I answered angrily. His arrogance made me want to cringe. It was indeed an Uchiha trait.

"That brings us back to our original question. What makes you so sure that you're not making a mistake?"

I answered straightly, "I don't. But I also don't know that I'm making the best decision of my life either." I smiled slightly. It was true. For every choice I make, who knows the outcome? You could only hope for the best.

With that said, I turned my concentration back to his wound. Pressing the last of my chakra into his lungs, I gently displaced his bones, careful not to hit any nerves, and accelerated the regeneration on his lung cells. The hole became smaller and smaller, yet for me, the black became larger and larger. It encompassed me slowly yet steadily. I could feel my muscles give out, my eyelids slowly closing with heavy lidded drowsiness. For the last moment, all I could see were his obsidian eyes and the full moon behind him, and feel the warmth of a hand touching my throat before blacking out.

.

.

.

* * *

.

.

.

The light was too bright. It filtered through the white blinds with smashing intensity. An overwhelming nausea came over me—it happened when I tended to overwork myself. I had the strange feeling that I was forgetting something. Something I couldn't quite recall…

I suddenly sat up from bed as the events of last night flashed through my head with fascinating speed.

Uchiha complex. Gorges. Moon. Wanting to jump. Blood. Sharingan. _Itachi_.

I suddenly wanted to puke from the nausea of sitting up too fast and thinking too hard. Did all that really happen? How did I end up back in my room? But before that could happen, an intense pounding (which I thought momentarily was the pounding of my own head) threatened to tear open my front door.

"SAKURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! OPEN THE DOORRRRRRRRRRRRR"

"Ughhhhhhhhhh." I groaned, closing my eyes, trying to go back to sleep. That dobe. I wanted to knock his living daylights into the middle of next week.

"SAKURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ARE YOU AWAKEEE?"

I got up, albeit a little clumsily and stumbled my way to the door, putting on an old oversized sweater in the process. Snapping the door then, I bellowed with the likeness of a wild rhinoceros,

"SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPPPPPPPPPP NARUTOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Awkward pause.

"Oh, you're awake, Sakura."

"Why the f—"

Before I could even respond, Naruto was dragging me out the door by the cuff of my sweater.

"We have to get to the Uchiha complex _now._" Naruto looked serious. Naruto was never serious. My anger from moments before instantly dissipated.

"Why? What happened? Is Sasuke Okay?"

Naruto frowned, "Its annoying how much you like that dobe. Tch. Sasuke's fine—or maybe not so fine. I don't know the details but there's been a death."

Sharp intake of breath. "Who?" I breathed, not knowing why instantly my thoughts turned to the elder of the Uchiha brothers.

"Not sure."

By the time we had rushed to the scene, there were already crowds of people standing in consolation circles around the Uchiha Complex. Naruto and I pushed through, scanning the people for the one person we were trying to find. Where was Sasuke?

Finally we spotted him. He looked a little more dejected than usual, black circles around his eyes, wearing all black, his hair disheveled.

"SASUKE!" If it was one thing that Naruto was good at, it was getting someone's attention.

"Sasuke, what happened?" I asked, worried.

"Shisui….he….he's…gone." Sasuke made a face, as if he had swallowed something absolutely putrid. I knew it was hard for him to even get those words out.

"WHAT?! BUT HOW CAN THAT BE?" Naruto bellowed.

"I'm so sorry…" I whispered as I embraced him. Just as I was about to let Sasuke go, I saw a pair of eyes staring at me intently. _Itachi_. Shivers went down my spine. Something felt amiss. His eyes were blank, his mouth set in a grim line, if possible, the bags around Itachi's eyes were even darker than Sasuke's.

We held our gazes only for a moment more before I broke it. I had the oddest sensation about the night before—it felt as if I were floating between reality and dream, trying to grasp my mind on everything that had happened, the details…Everything from the night before felt like butterfly wings flittering about a garden.

"Shisui was so powerful; we don't know how he could have…" Sasuke reasoned. "It just doesn't make sense. I was just with him yesterday with Itachi. Shisui seemed fine and well."

My eyes went back to Itachi talking with some other men with stern faces dressed in black. My breath hitched when I saw his right _wrist_—it was still broken in two places, but he hid it well. When I looked up at him, he was staring right at me—he saw me looking at his wrist.

I wanted to wretch my gaze away from him, as I felt my heart pound with pulsing intensity. _Was this what he meant?_ I felt a horrid taste arise in my mouth. I couldn't stand his gaze. I felt as if I were being peeled apart like an onion under it, becoming exposed and completely readable.

He could see my fear. _What have I done._

Two men passed us whispering,

"The culprit can't have gotten away unharmed. Shisui would have left a _mark_, that's for sure."

The other answered, "Yes, they've been checking the hospitals all night for suspicious patients with wounds. Haven't found any, though. Isn't that strange?"

I could have sworn my world imploded then. It was all clicking in my head like clockwork—it all began to make sense. I must have looked rather dazed for a few moments because Naruto gave me a strange look,

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?"

I felt as if the air was suddenly thinner, suffocating slowly in a room. I saw multicolored dots taking over my vision.

"Um…Yes, I believe…so." And with that line, I promptly fainted.

I woke up only a few minutes later, disoriented. The voices all muffled together in incoherent strings of words.

"Is she alright?"

"What happened?"

"She must have just been tired from work, and then all this news hits her."

"Wow, didn't even see her fall, Sasuke didn't either. Itachi sure has quick coming to catch her from all the way across the room. Good thing though, for that fall would surely boast a concussion."

"Itachi, why don't you take Sakura to one of our guest rooms so she can rest?"

_What? Itachi?_ I looked up, and indeed, the elder Uchiha brother held me as he looked at me with half-questioning, half-knowing eyes.

"U-U-Uh, I think I'll be fine…" I made an attempt to stand but found it somewhat impossible.

"Don't push yourself so hard, Haruno." Itachi said dryly. He hoisted me up gently. _Can a killer be gentle?_ I shivered. I wanted to protest, but it seemed untimely. The attention of the crowd was already shifting, Uchiha Fugaku was just about to speak. I looked at Sasuke—but he wasn't looking my way. A flare of anger—so typical. I even looked at Naruto, but he just smiled and mouthed "go rest", and ignored my helpless face.

"Are you scared to be alone with me now?" His voice of velvet made his words sound almost seductive, but the threat was there nonetheless

My head screamed _Yes._ _Considering you murdered your best friend yesterday without a backward glance, of course, I'm scared of you, you bastard!_

I replied with silence.

"I see, you weren't nearly so modest with your words yesterday, Haruno."

"Maybe that's because I didn't know you killed your _best friend_." My anger was barely contained.

"I warned you. But you didn't listen. You could have left me there to die. I wouldn't have minded, you know."

Pause. "I couldn't do that."

Itachi looked at me curiously, "Why not? It's simple to do nothing."

Stubbornly, "Just because."

Itachi put me down gently on the bed. I tried standing up immediately but my legs collapsed beneath me. _still woozy._

I say exasperatedly—partly because of my own weakness, mostly because of the events of the previous night that had come to change my life, "What now?"

I flopped onto my back, my eyes facing the ceiling, waiting for his reply. I could feel his eyes studying me, judging me, so I looked at the plain ceiling instead with equal intensity. For a few moments he didn't answer. I closed my eyes, thinking that this question would carry on into eternity.

Then so suddenly, I felt his body right above mine, his arms on both sides, his body heat emanating so closely I could smell his scent of pinewood and peppermint. I felt his breath flutter on my ear, and so softly and slowly,

"Tell. No. One."

When I opened my eyes, he was gone.

* * *

AN: I'm so excited to see what all of you guys think! I don't know...I was just wondering what would happen if Sakura and co. and Itachi were just a bit closer in age. I kinda saw Itachi as around 20ish and Sakura to be around 16,17,18? I just played around with the idea of how things would change in Naruto world, what would happen with the Uchiha massacre and everyhting. Anyway, just an idea, that simply had to get out. I thought it does fairly well as a oneshot. but I dunno. What do you guys think?

.

much love and turkey for all,

animeanne


End file.
